growing mushrooms

[lazy gardener]

My wine caps are growing in the area I spawned under the bean trellis. This is my first adventure in growing mushrooms. Pretty exciting. But, I want to ensure that I have a crop available next year, also. I have no idea if they are hardy from one year to the next in my nasty cold climate.

After a lot of reading, I have not found any information regarding collecting spawn, how to preserve spawn, and how best to keep it alive through the winter to ensure next season's crop. So... this is what I've come up with:

Harvest my largest 2 wine cap mushrooms, and collect their spawn on a piece of waxed paper. I saw that they were releasing spores this morning. I intend to place the caps on a piece of waxed paper, and cover them with bowls to exclude any foreign spores. Then, using sterile water, rinse spores into a bag full of kiln dried aspen shavings for safe keeping for next year's crop. I did not find any information on line about making your own sawdust spawn mixture, so this is the best idea I can come up with. Mushroom peeps... Would this work???

If not, what is missing in my logic? How long can I store the inoculated shavings??? And what is the best storage temp???

Can mushroom spawn be stored dry for any length of time???

 

[Fields Mountain Farm]

Don't know if it'll help ya but here's a link to a mushroom foragers thread. Someone there may be able to answer your questions or offer advice. Good luck and I hope you have wonderful mushrooms every season!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/mushroom-foragers.1130577/

 

[tigger19687]

This is one thing that I would love to do once I have a farm. I want a good section of wood lot so I can grow muchrooms.
YUM !

 

[lazy gardener]

I have allowed my bloom of wine caps to go to spawn. Looking forward to a larger crop in the spring. I have 2 more sections that have not yet spawned.

 

[Neona]

I'm by no means a pro-grower. I've done it once in a mushroom class and twice in kits. Both times I've used inoculated straw. Would that work in your area?

 

[lazy gardener]

I dont know. I simply let the one bloom I had mature and spawn right back into the wood chips. We'll see what happens next year. At least I can ID them, so when/if I get more, I can then harvest them.

They say that using straw gives a shorter harvest.

 

[1cock2hens]

to store spores long term I would wipe out a glass with alcohol let it completely dry then put a fresh mushroom cap in the glass, gill side down. cover the glass with an even larger glass or bowl to prevent it being touched/ contaminated.. let sit for a couple days... buy a syringe with a 14g needle.. clean syringe well with alcohol.. bring water to a boil and suck that into the syringe then push it out several times, after 5 or 6 times fill it and leave it, let it sit an hour so that the water in the syringe is room temperature.. take your mushroom cap out of the glass and put room temp water from the syringe into it, scrape with the tip to mix it then suck it back in.. you have a spore syringe. the syringe will easily last a year at normal room temp /// if you give it something to feed on like sawdust it wont keep long, it will feed then fruit.


dry method for long term storage you could also just make a spore print on aluminum foil.. put a cap gill side down on foil for a couple days, after it has released spores remove the cap fold the aluminum up and put in a baggy, those spores will last years if kept cool and dry

 

[1cock2hens]

This is one thing that I would love to do once I have a farm. I want a good section of wood lot so I can grow muchrooms.
YUM !

the fun thing about mushrooms is you dont even need land or a farm of any kind// using a plastic tub, perlite, some brown rice flour, vermiculite and spores you can grow mushrooms right in your house.

 

[lazy gardener]

to store spores long term I would wipe out a glass with alcohol let it completely dry then put a fresh mushroom cap in the glass, gill side down. cover the glass with an even larger glass or bowl to prevent it being touched/ contaminated.. let sit for a couple days... buy a syringe with a 14g needle.. clean syringe well with alcohol.. bring water to a boil and suck that into the syringe then push it out several times, after 5 or 6 times fill it and leave it, let it sit an hour so that the water in the syringe is room temperature.. take your mushroom cap out of the glass and put room temp water from the syringe into it, scrape with the tip to mix it then suck it back in.. you have a spore syringe. the syringe will easily last a year at normal room temp /// if you give it something to feed on like sawdust it wont keep long, it will feed then fruit.


dry method for long term storage you could also just make a spore print on aluminum foil.. put a cap gill side down on foil for a couple days, after it has released spores remove the cap fold the aluminum up and put in a baggy, those spores will last years if kept cool and dry

Thank you so very much! So, if I saved some spores dry, what would I then do with them to get them to grow? Simply rinse them off the foil into my growing medium? I have a mushroom out there right now, that has passed it's prime for eating, but it could certainly provide some dry spores!!!

Thank you!

 

[tigger19687]

Great info @1cock2hens

I would like to grow some now but the basement is the only place and it is damp down there